Friday, March 27, 2009

The day my Mom invented 'Lunch'..

It's a little known scientific fact,that my Mom invented the 'Big Wheel' tri-cycle...Oh yes.Way back in the middle of the last century,when my legs were long enough to reach the ground,but still too short to reach the pedals on my tri-cycle,Mom solved the problem in a most ingenious fashion;

Of course,decades later,Mattel stole her idea,mass produced it,and the rest is pedal bike history...Lance Armstrong probably has no idea of the debt he owes to a petite housewife from Texas.

Shortly thereafter,in an equally brilliant flash of,..umm,..brilliance,(don't stop me now,..I'm on a roll),she amazed me yet again by inventing the concept of 'Lunch'..I remember just like it was yesterday,coming home from Kindergarten one fine afternoon,and hearing her casually remark that lunch was on the table.

..'??????'

'Food?..in the middle of the day??..Lunch you say?'..

This is the greatest idea since Tinker Toys!!

At least,that's my recollection..The day when a young man's developing cognition bridged the gap between neurons,and in a synaptic flash the world suddenly became a little more predictable.

Imagine my embarrassment when,in my late teens,it became known to me that the whole lunch thing had been around for quite some time before that day,..probably going back as far as 670 B.C. when Hebrew slaves put down their oars in protest,and formed the first labor union.

I'm reminded of these things,because my dear friend Rainey went and did a post wherein she waxes a wee bit homesick.These days,at least for me,'home' is generally more ethereal,and less tangible.

Hm..know what you mean...my mum also invented lamb shank stew...lovely...and cheap enough to feed seven of us on one man's labouring wage...we ate well...mum was a genius!!!

I remember sitting with my eldest sister watching Somon and garfunkel's concert in Central Park on TV in 1982. We had just come home from the Spinal Unit where Don was in in Intensive care...I was 28 he 32...our girls 7 and 4. They danced about like sprites in front of the TV after spending a whole day, one of seven months at the hospital...I remember watching their little shadows between them and the tele...my sister got exasoerated...could not understand their need to dance and be children till she had her own...this song brings back so much...good stuff thanks Sling